A major gift for Architecture, and new leadership in English

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

First and foremost, I am so pleased, proud and grateful to announce the $3 million Cornerstone gift from Bill and Laura Pelham. Thank you so much, Bill and Laura! A full article in this month’s newsletter tells the details of how their gift will serve our students, but I don’t know if it can convey what a gratifying end it made to such a tumultuous year!

The University held a memorable event to celebrate the gift at the Poinsett Club in Greenville. Our President was in attendance and shared a few thoughts, as did I. One of the comments I made was that it is remarkable to what extent this gift aligns perfectly with the strategic priorities we have been articulating for the College during the planning exercise we have been undertaking this past semester. The Pelhams’ generosity truly could not have come at a better time or in a better form.

A couple of additional announcements. Susanna Ashton will be stepping down as Chair of the English Department at the end of June. She has done an amazing job over the last four years, especially navigating her large and complex department through the pandemic. We will miss her energy, her panache, and her vibrant sense of humor. But we also wish her well as she goes off for a richly-earned sabbatical in the fall, followed by a spring to be spent as a Research Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Susanna will be continuing her work on John Andrew Jackson, an escaped slave from South Carolina who became an international speaker and author in the 19th century. Hats off to you, Susanna!

Succeeding Susanna as the incoming Chair of English is Will Stockton, Professor of English and a scholar of the early modern period including his namesake William Shakespeare, a lesser-known playwright who produced some pieces for performance at the Globe Theatre in London.

I was also hoping to be able to make two additional leadership announcements, one for the conclusion of our national search for a new full-time director of Pan African Studies, and one for our internal search for a new Director of the Humanities Hub to replace Lee Morrissey who will be stepping down at the end of the summer. An announcement for both is imminent, and we hope to be at liberty to give you the news in our August newsletter, if not sooner.

Last but not least, the Dean’s team has been hard at work these last weeks, preparing the College report to the Board of Trustees, my first since becoming Dean, which will be presented later this fall. The talent and hard work of our students, faculty, staff and alumni have given us a deep well of accomplishments from which to draw for our presentation.

With best wishes to all for the summer as we pull out of COVID at last…

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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The College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities at Clemson University is beginning the academic year with new faculty members, including several new program leaders.

Ryan Dietz is the new director of the Master of Real Estate Development program and a professor of practice in the Department of City Planning and Real Estate Development, which is based in downtown Greenville. Dietz comes to Clemson University from Florida State University, where he led a similar program. In this role he succeeds Robert Benedict, who recently retired.

Jon Bernard Marcoux is the new director of Historic Preservation, a joint graduate program shared between Clemson University and the College of Charleston. The program is based at the Clemson Design Center in Charleston, located at the historic Cigar Factory. Marcoux had been the director of the Noreen Stonor Drexel Cultural and Historic Preservation program at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. He succeeds Carter L. Hudgins, who retired as director.

Other new arrivals to the College’s faculty are listed by department.

Art: Rachel de Cuba comes to Clemson as a Provost’s Pathway Fellow, while Mandy Ferguson, Haley Floyd, David Gerhard and Dustin Massey are lecturers.

School of Architecture: Lara Browning and Susannah Horton are lecturers in the landscape architecture program, while Virginia Melnyk and Brandon Pass are lecturers in architecture.

Construction Science and Management: Vivek Sharma joins the department as an assistant professor, while his wife, Harnish Sharma is a lecturer.

English: Jordan Frith is the Pearce Professor of Professional Communication. Chelsea Murdock has been named the new director of the Writing Center and is a lecturer. Other new lecturers are Stevie Edwards, Rene Fleischbein, J. Benjamin Fuqua, April Ayers Lawson and Lee Matalone.

History: Joshua Catalano and Rebecca Shimoni Stoil join the department as assistant professors.

Languages: Yezid Flores and José Ortiz are lecturers in Spanish.

Performing Arts: Lisa Sain Odom is an assistant professor of music.

Philosophy and Religion: John Thames is an assistant professor of religious studies.

The Office of the Provost maintains a photo gallery of CAAH faculty who have joined the university in the past year, along with information on faculty members who have joined other Colleges.

 

Clemson University President James P. Clements and Provost Robert H. Jones hosted a reception Sept. 3 to recognize the University’s newest tenured and promoted faculty. The celebration at the Madren Center featured appetizers, music from a live jazz ensemble and the opportunity to meet peers from other disciplines.

Faculty promotions and tenure announcements in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities were first released before the summer break:

Robert Hewitt, a specialist in landscape architecture, achieved the rank of professor in the School of Architecture. Also in architecture, Joseph Choma, Sallie Hambright-Belue and Amalia Leifeste were named associate professors.

Other new associate professors were Todd Anderson (art); Joe Burgett and Jason Lucas (construction science and management); Walt Hunter (English) and Raquel Anido (languages/Spanish).

The following CAAH faculty members were promoted to senior lecturers: Clarissa Mendez and George Schafer (architecture); Katalin Beck, Lucian Ghita, Andrew Mathas and Kathleen Nalley (English); and Harris King (languages/German).

Again, congratulations to all!

Kristen Aldebol-Hazle, lecturer, Department of English

Subjects taught: First-Year Composition and British Literature

Education: Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis; B.A. in English and medieval and renaissance studies from Duke University

Research focus: Her research interests include medievalism in video games, bodies in virtual spaces like dream visions and video games, and the rise of literacy in medieval England as a disruption to social control.

Prior appointment: Lecturer, Department of English, University of California, Davis

Personal note: Aldebol-Hazle is returning to her Upstate roots and rediscovering her love of running hills and attending Clemson games with her family. Kristen is a knitter, a baker and cook, a dog-lover and a happy new wife.

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Todd Anderson, assistant professor, Department of Art

Subject taught: Fine Art Printmaking

Education: M.F.A. University of New Mexico; B.F.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research focus: Collaborative and cross-disciplinary research that documents retreating glaciers via the creation of original works of art using various hand printing techniques. www.TheLastGlacier.com

Prior appointment: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Personal note: I have a 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son so I enjoy playing with dolls, building forts and reading books rich with pictures.

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Anthony Bernarducci, assistant professor and assistant director of choral activites, Department of Performing Arts

Subjects taught: Men’s Chorus, Music Theory/Aural Skills

Education: Ph.D. in music education/choral conducting from Florida State University;  M.M. in choral conducting from The University of Arizona; B.M. in music education from Westminster Choir College

Research focus: I am an active composer of choral music as well as a creator of modern performance editions of unknown historical literature. I am also focused on creating instructional strategies that incorporate critical listening skills into the ensemble rehearsal.

Prior appointment: Director of choral music at Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson Arizona

Personal note: I reside in Easley with my wife Breanna, son Caius and daughter Daela.

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Sara Crocker, lecturer, Department of Communication Studies

Subject taught: Public Speaking

Education: M.A. in Communication, Technology and Society from Clemson University; B.A. in communication from Anderson University

Research focus: Her graduate research focused on technology apprehension, communication competence issues and achievement emotions experienced by academically disadvantaged students in community colleges.

Personal note: Sara lives in Anderson with her husband, Brent, 3-year-old daughter, Ava Grace, and a very spoiled Yorkie, Oliver Winston. She enjoys teaching in her church, obsessively following national politics and escaping to the Tennessee mountains whenever possible.

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Melissa Dugan, lecturer, Department of English

Subject taught: Accelerated Composition and Technical Writing

Education: M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina; M.A. in Liberal Studies from Villanova University; M.A. in Education from Holy Family University; B.A. in English from Penn State University

Research focus: Melissa writes novels and poetry about language, love and time. Currently, she is working on a novel about a kidnapped girl, a boy named Rat and a magician.

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Adrienne Fama, lecturer of Spanish, Department of Languages

Subjects taught: elementary and intermediate Spanish

Education: M.A. in Hispanic linguistics from the University of Florida; B.A. in Spanish from Northwestern University

Research focus: Her research interests are second language acquisition and phonology as they can be applied to the foreign-language classroom.

Personal note: A native of Florida, she enjoys biking, swimming, reading and traveling.

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Elizabeth L. Jemison, assistant professor of religion, Department of Philosophy and Religion

Subjects taught: American religious history, African-American religion, Southern religion [religious studies courses relating to the U.S.]

Education: Ph.D. in the study of religion from Harvard University; A.M. in the study of religion from Harvard University; A.B. in religion from Princeton University

Research focus: Jemison is a scholar of American religious history with an emphasis on issues of race and gender. She has particular expertise in African-American religious history and in the religious history of the South. Currently, she is writing a book based on her dissertation that examines questions of politics, citizenship and religion among African-American and white Protestants in the post-Civil War South. It is tentatively titled “Protestants, Politics, and Power: Race, Gender, and Religion in the Post-Emancipation Mississippi River Valley, 1863-1900.”

Personal note: My husband and I are living in downtown Greenville and are enjoying exploring the Upstate.

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Roberto Risso, visiting assistant professor of Italian, Department of Languages

Subjects taught: Italian language, culture, literature

Education: Ph.D. in Italian, University of Wisconisin, Madison; Dottorato di Ricerca in Italianistica (Italian Ph.D. in Italian); Laurea Magistrale in letteratura Italiana (M.A. in Italian)

Research focus: His central interest is the Italian narrative prose tradition, with special interest on the history of the Italian novel from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. He published a book on the Italian epistolary novel of the 16th and 17th centuries and is working on a book on the Italian historical novel of the first half of the 19th century with special attention on the depiction on the Middle Ages.

Prior appointment: Colby College (ME), visiting assistant professor in Italian

Personal note: I love animals, especially birds and dogs. I read as much as I can and I love being outdoors. South Carolina is so great for me!

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Brian Adam Smith, visiting assistant professor, Department of English

Subjects taught: New Media, Art and Technology, Literature and Music

Education: Ph.D. from the Department of Comparative Literature at Emory University; B.A. from the Department of English at Appalachian State University

Research focus: As a self-trained multi-instrumentalist, Smith’s academic interests tend to revolve around studies in image, sound and text. His dissertation was on the history and evolution of the music video and its predecessors.

Personal note: Aside from teaching and research, Smith works in the music industry as a video producer, documentarian and promoter. He has worked with a number of Grammy Award-winning and internationally renowned Americana artists such as Doc Watson, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Steve Martin, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Old Crow Medicine Show, among others.

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Crystal Stephens, lecturer in the Department of English

Subject taught: English

Education: M.S. in technical communication from Utah State University; M.A. in American studies, folklore, from Utah State University; B.A. in English from Brigham Young University-Idaho

Research focus: Her interests focus on fairy tales and rhetoric, particularly the rhetoric of silence. She enjoys analyzing fairy tales and other folklore through different technical lenses.

Prior appointment: English adjunct and English online adjunct at Utah State University

Personal note: She enjoys reading, trying new foods, and dancing. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and their daughter.

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Stephanie Stripling, lecturer in the Department of English

Subject taught: British Literature, Literature in 20th- & 21st-Century Contexts

Education: Currently 2nd-year Ed.D. student in educational leadership (curriculum and instruction) at University of North Carolina, Wilmington;
60+ post-M.A. hours toward a Ph.D. in British literature from University of South Carolina, Columbia; M.A., 1st-class honours in comparative literature and cultural studies from University of Limerick; B.A. honours in comparative literature (Spanish and French) from University of Saskatchewan

Research focus: Interests include utopian studies, 18th studies, cultural studies, women and gender studies, higher education peda-/androgogies, and faculty development. She is motivated by the relationships between and amongst humanities areas as intersections of learning.

Prior appointment: University of South Carolina, Columbia, English instructor of record; Halifax Community College, English and humanities instructor

Personal note: Steph enjoys photography, any crime drama on television, Jason Mraz, and changing the world, one person at a time.

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Jae DiBello Takeuchi, assistant professor of Japanese in the Department of Languages

Subjects taught: Japanese language, Japanese culture and related courses

Education: Ph.D. in Japanese linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; M.A. in Japanese from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research focus: In her research, she draws on sociolinguistics and second language acquisition to examine Japanese linguistic issues from the point of view of second language (L2) learners and speakers. She is currently examining the linguistic beliefs and perceptions of L2 speakers and comparing L2 speakers who are short-term and long-term residents of Japan.

Prior appointment: Prior to coming to Clemson, she was completing her Ph.D. and teaching Japanese at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Personal note: Before moving to Wisconsin, she lived in Ehime, Japan for 12 years. She and her husband are having fun getting to know Clemson and South Carolina. In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano and watching Japanese TV shows.

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Pauline de Tholozany, assistant professor of French in the Department of Languages

Subjects taught: French and French Literature

Education: Ph.D. in French studies from Brown University; M.A. in French studies from Brown University

Research focus: Her research focuses on 19th-century France, and most particularly on the ways in which the novel both reflects and constructs new norms of civility. She is currently finishing her book, L’Ecole de la maladresse, which draws a history of clumsiness in 18th- and 19th-century France.

Prior appointments: Bryn Mawr College, Avignon Institute (summer teaching appointment); Mellon Post-doctoral fellow, Wellesley College; visiting assistant professor, Department of French and Francophone Studies, Bryn Mawr College; visiting assistant professor, Department of French, Gettysburg College

Personal note: I have two amazing younger sisters that always keep me up to date about what is new on the French musical scene. I practice yoga every day and am a certified yoga instructor.

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Yanlin Wang, lecturer of Chinese in the Department of Languages

Education: Ed.D. in instructional technology from Texas Tech University; M.A. in linguistic and applied linguistics from Beijing Language and Culture University, China; B.A in English from Sichuan International Studies University, China

Research focus: Her research focuses on technology-enhanced foreign language acquisition, computer-mediated communication, and instructional design guided by cognitive theory of multimedia learning, cognitive load theory and dual code theory.

Prior appointment: Instructor of Chinese Language, Texas Tech University

Personal note: I have a son who is 9 years old. He likes Clemson so much because there are lakes where he can go fishing and forests where he can catch insects. We are so glad to move to Clemson. Go Tigers!

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Candace G. Wiley, lecturer in the Department of English

Subjects taught: American Literature and Freshmen Composition

Education: Fulbright Fellowship to Colombia; M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina; M.A. in English from Clemson University; B.A. in English from Bowie State University

Research focus: As a poet, her current book project explores Afrofuturism and expands the concept of the African diaspora by including African mermaids, Klingons and Black Barbies. She probes black mutantism in the Black Atlantic and beyond. She will be one of the readers at this year’s Writer’s Harvest, which collects canned goods for the needy (Nov. 18, Strom Thurmond Institute at 7 p.m.).

Prior appointment: Winthrop University

Personal note: She is co-founder of a federal nonprofit called The Watering Hole which brings quality, affordable, accessible education opportunities to poets of color in South Carolina. Their goal is to transform the landscape of S.C. poetry by preparing more voices of color for publication and by extent having more of those Southern stories documented and valued.

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Debra Williamson, lecturer of Spanish in the Department of Languages

Subjects taught: Beginning and intermediate Spanish

Education: M.A.University of Southern Mississippi

Personal note: Clemson is a great place to teach and to live. I love outdoor sports such as hiking, kayaking, and paddle boarding.  When I am not teaching I can be found in and around Lake Hartwell.  In addition, I enjoy Spanish language film and travel to Spanish speaking countries.

The Clemson Colloquium on Race & Ethnicity (CCRE), together with this year’s Race and the University Initiative, hosted a two-day spring conference at Clemson that featured presentations and roundtable discus­sions across a wide range of intellectual work and teaching on race and ethnicity at Clemson and at universities in the region. The conference featured a keynote address by Salamishah Tillet (U Penn), pedagogy roundtable speaker Lupe Davidson (U of Oklahoma), and faculty from nearby universities.

Cameron Bushnell, Angela Naimou, Kimberly Manganelli, and Erin Goss comprised the organizing committee. CAAH Clemson faculty presenters included: Lee Wilson (history), Susanna Ashton (English), George Palacios (languages), Amit Bein (history), Tiffany Dawn Creegan Miller (languages), Garry Bertholf (English), Adrian Paterson (English, visiting professor from the National University of Ireland, Galway), Cameron Bushnell (English), Lindsay Thomas (English), Daphne Tatiana Canlas (Ph.D. Candidate, RCID), and Chenjerai Kumanyika (communication studies).

This Spring’s CCRE conference was co-sponsored by CAAH’s Race and the University initiative, The Rutland Institute for Ethics, the Women’s Leadership program, Pan African Studies, Pearce Center for Professional Communication, Calhoun Honors College, the Department of English, the Graduate Student Senate and the Department of Communication Studies.

CCRE is a working group of Clemson faculty that seeks to reshape intellectual perspectives on race and ethnicity and works to acknowledge and counter discrimination on Clemson’s campus and beyond. It is open to all Clemson faculty interested in the study of race and ethnicity.

Susanna Ashton, professor of English, has just been awarded a semester-long research fellowship at Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. She will take up residency there for Fall 2015 to work on her book, A Plausible Man: The Life of John Andrew Jackson.

Vernon Burton will be inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in April 2016. Burton joins Dorothy Allison, Betsy Byars and Guy Davenport as the academy’s newest inductees. The South Carolina Academy of Authors was founded at Anderson University in 1986. Its principal purpose is to identify and recognize the state’s distinguished writers. The Academy board selects new inductees annually whose works have been judged culturally important. Each inductee, whether living or deceased, has added to South Carolina’s literary legacy by earning notable scholarly attention or achieving historical prominence. Burton is professor of history and director of the Clemson Cyberinstitute and is the author or editor of more than 20 books and more than 200 articles.

Cameron Bushnell presented a paper at the American Comparative Literature Association in Seattle in March. Her essay was entitled: “Modeling Canon Formation: Postcolonial Writing about Art” and was part of a panel on Creating Contemporary Canons. Bushnell is associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English.

Wayne Chapman shares the following panel, lecture and upcoming paper. Chapman is professor of English and director of the Clemson University Press.

• Chaired panel: “Irish Authors presented by The South Carolina Review”; and sponsored poets C. L. Dallat and Anne-Marie Fyfe, Clemson Literary Festival 8, Clemson University, March 27, 2015.
• Invited lecture: “Yeats, Landor, and “The Phases of the Moon” (illustrated), Atlanta Modernisms Seminar, The Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University, March 23. 2015.
• “Dorothy Wellesley and Virginia Woolf: ‘praise from Yeats is the only solid thing of its kind now existing,’” at the 25th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA, June 4-7, 2015.

Peter Cohen, senior lecturer of religion, was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. International College of Ministers and Laity in the Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College during their Crown Forum Ceremony in April.  The following day he presented a paper at the 2015 Peace Builders Conference, ‘Fostering Dialogues in Education, Ethics and Nonviolent Peace Building: Global, Social and Religious Movements Today’. The paper is titled ‘Gandhi’s Satyagraha: A Paradigm for Religious Dialogue Leading to Peace’ and will be published in a volume along with the other papers delivered at the conference.

Bryan Denham, Campbell Professor of Sports Communication, recently contributed a chapter on performance-enhancing drug use in professional baseball to the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Drugs and Sport.

The unique sculpture of David Detrich is on display alongside works from Yoko Ono, Lynda Benglis and Leonardo Drew in “Material World” at the Greenville County Museum of Art. Detrich was also invited recently to exhibit his work at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Earlier this spring, his work was  included in a group show in Los Angeles entitled “Scripted Spaces.” Detrich is professor of art and coordinator of the graduate and sculpture programs in the Department of Art.

Ufuk Ersoy’s essay, Glass, as Light as Air, as Deep as Water,”  has been published as a chapter of The Material Imagination, Reveries on Architecture and Matter, ed. by M. Mindrup. Ersoy is assistant professor in the School of Architecture. Ersoy joined Clemson’s faculty in 2012. He teaches history, theory and design.

David Franco presented a paper at the multidisciplonary conference “The Mediated City” in Los Angeles last fall. Franco is assistant professor in the School of Architecture. He teaches design studio and courses on history, theory and criticism.

Cindy Gooodloe, lecturer of music (piano), presented a lecture and recital with audiovisuals for The Music Club of Greenville, S.C..  Through performance examples, plus pictures and audio, the recital explored bird depiction through history in keyboard music, how it is reflected from the Baroque thru the Contemporary periods. The recital was held at the home of Beth Lee in Greenville, with a reception afterwards.

H. Roger Grant has a new book chapter: “Trains of the 1970’s: Crisis, Response, Rebirth,” in Robert S. McGonigal, ed., Trains of the 1970’s: Crisis and Rebirth for America’s Railroads (Kalmbach Publishing Co., 2015). Grant is the Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History at Clemson University.

This past November, Keith Evan Green (architecture) was an invited speaker at the Critical and Clinical Cartographies Conference hosted by the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. Other speakers included N. Katherine Hayles (Duke), Antoine Picon (Harvard), Christian Girard (Paris) and Kas Oosterhuis (TU Delft/Rotterdam). From wide-ranging perspectives, the conference explored the relationship between the human body as an organism and the machines employed in health care. Inspired by the thinking of Deleuze and Guattari, the organizers invited participants to engage “in the practice of cartography in order to map the ever-shifting thresholds between the organic and the inorgan­ic, the innate and the acquired.” Green’s paper, “The ART of Vortical Thinking,” considers his design research project, the interactive and intelligent Assistive Robotic Table, as free-flowing and measureless. An edited book will be released with the collected conference papers. At the time of the conference, Green was visiting professor at TU Delft on research sabbatical. Green had turned down the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Canada (Montreal) for his temporary Dutch home. In between local travels and engagement with theTU Delft community, Green completed the manuscript for his monograph, Architectural Robotics: Ecosystems of Bits, Bytes and Biology (MIT Press, February 2016).

Steven Grosby’s article “Myth and symbol: the persistence of ethnicity and religion” appeared in the journal Nations and Nationalism 21/1 (2015): 182-186; and the chapter “Methodological individualism and invisible hands,” appeared in the edited book Commerce and Community: Ecologies of social cooperation (Routledge, 2015), pp. 122-145. Grosby was also appointed to the international editorial board of the journal Annuaire Roumain d’Anthropologie, a publication of the Romanian Academy. Grosby is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion.

Sallie Hambright-Belue, assistant professor of architecture, along with her Clemson Creative Inquiry students, presented “Curriculum as Media: Shaping Beginning Design Students,” at the 31^st National Conference on the Beginning Design Conference. During this three day forum in February at the University of Houston, faculty from across the nation presented their work in different categories. The Clemson group, under Hambright-Belue’s guidance, shared an indepth analysis of the Clemson University architecture curriculum. Their presentation sparked interest and discussion among the audience from universities across the country, about how to further improve architectural education.

In February, Lance Howard and a group of Clemson Creative Inquiry students presented  “Bringing Other Clemsons to Light,” at the 9th annual Landscape, Space and Place Conference at Indiana University in Bloomington. While there, Howard and his group demonstrated the method for making bricks by hand, using the same techniques used by convict laborers to construct the early buildings of Clemson University. The bricks made in Bloomington (from Clemson clay) will be used in the construction of a labyrinth dedicated to a loving relationship between humans and the land somewhere on the Clemson campus. Howard is senior lecturer of geography.

Steven B. Katz, Pearce Professor for Professional Communication, shares the following news:

•  In November his talk at the National Communication Association in Chicago on the USDA’s AC21 document and process on biotechnology and ‘agricultural harmony’ was delivered on his behalf.
• In March, he organized, chaired, and introduced by playing an electric guitar, a panel on rhetoric and music that featured three RCID doctoral students studying rhetoric and music (Mike Utley, punk rock; Mathew Osborn, electronic dub step; and A.D. Carson, hip-hop) at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Tampa, Florida; this session was streamed live, and took Twitter questions and comments.
• In May, he will speak to the University of Buffalo campus on Writing in the Disciplines.
• At Clemson University, he organized and presented with Professor Lesly Temesvari (biological sciences) four workshops for the Writing in the Disciplines Initiative he created. The workshops involved about 200 faculty members from across campus.
• In the 2014-2015 academic year, Katz also had three articles and eight poems published, with more to come.
• He has been appointed as the poetry editor of Survive and Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine.
• Some of Katz’s poems can be seen at
  http://egjournal.org/article/conversions-in-the-blue-ridge-mountains/
  http://egjournal.org/article/left-earth/  
  http://egjournal.org/issue/spring-2014/article/digging-stairs/
  http://egjournal.org/issue/spring-2014/article/four-meditative-sonnets-sound-voice-paper-breath/
  and http://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=survive_thrive.

Thomas Kuehn’s chapter “Gender and Law in Milan,” was published in A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Milan: The
Distinctive Features of an Italian State, ed. Andrea Gamberini, Brill’s Companions to European History vol. 7 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015), 406-31. Kuehn is professor and chair of the Department of History.

Eric Lapin presented a paper, “Performing Arts: Rethinking Higher Education Music Programs,” and chaired the session on “Pedagogical Innovations in Teaching Training and Music Programs” at the Humanities Education and Research Association (HERA) conference in San Francisco, CA. Lapin is lecturer of music in the Department of Performing Arts.

Michael LeMahieu recently published a review essay, co-authored with Vernon Burton, in American Studies, and another in Twentieth-Century Literature. This spring he has given talks at the Modern Language Association convention, Penn State University, and Yale University, where he is currently a visiting faculty fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition.

Dominic Mastroianni, assistant professor in the Department of English, was  named the Clemson Libraries Researcher of the Month for April. In the announcement, Clemson Libraries stated, “Mastroianni joined the Clemson faculty in 2008 and has kept busy teaching and publishing since then. He has published several articles, reviews, interviews and a book. The Melville Society awarded his 2011 article “Revolutionary Time and the Future of Democracy in Melville’s Pierre” the 2012 Hennig Cohen Prize for ‘excellence in scholarship and writing in an article or book chapter on Melville.'” Read more here.

Joseph P. Mazer, assistant professor and associate chair of communication studies and director of the CAAH Social Media Listening Center, shares the following news:

• Joseph P. Mazer and Elizabeth E. Graham (The University of Akron) published “Measurement in Instructional Communication Research: A Decade in Review in the latest volume of Communication Education.
• Mazer, Blair Thompson (Western Kentucky University), and Elizabeth Flood Grady (University of Nebraska) published “The Changing Nature of Parent-Teacher Communication: Mode Selection in the Smartphone Era in the same volume. That paper received the 2015 Top Paper Award from the Central States Communication Association’s Communication Education Interest Group.
• Mazer and Andrew M. Ledbetter (Texas Christian University) published “A Place for Connecting and Disclosing: Facebook and Friendships at the Dawn of College Life” in the second edition of Casing Interpersonal Communication: Case Studies in Personal and Social Relationships.
• In November, Mazer assumed the role of chair of the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Instructional Development Division.
• In January 2015, he was named consulting editor for forums for Communication Education, a journal published by NCA.
• The Social Media Listening Center received a Grand Award (Writing for the Media category) from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for Clemson’s “We CU Chatter” feature.

In January, Kathleen Nalley’s second poetry collection, American Sycamore, was published by Finishing Line Press. In February, Emrys in Greenville hosted Nalley (poetry) and Jonathan O’Dell (fiction) for a reading at Gringos in downtown Greenville as part of the Emrys Reading Room series.  May 15-17, Nalley has been invited to be one of the featured authors at the S.C. Book Festival in Columbia. She will be with S.C. Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth and S.C. poet Ray McManus in a session called “A Punch of Poetry.” Nalley is a lecturer in the Department of English.

In March, at the annual conference of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Hala Nassar was elected second vice president of the organization. On Earth Day, April 22, Nassar delivered the keynote address at the first-ever Water Symposium at Penn State, “Water, Place and People: Historical and Cultural Challenges in Urban Landscape Design Along the Nile.” Nassar is associate professor and graduate coordinator of landscape architecture.

Travers Scott has a new publication: “Productive Passions: Masculinity, Reproduction and Territorializations in Techno-horror,” for a special issue on “Geophilosophies of Masculinity” in Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 20:1, 87-104, DOI: 10.1080/0969725X.2015.1017384. Scott is assistant professor of communication studies and director of the graduate program in communication, technology and society.

Kerrie Seymour performed in Richard III as Queen Elizabeth at Greenville’s Warehouse Theatre during April and May. With this production, Seymour earned her membership in Actors Equity Association, the union representing professional actors and stage managers. In June, she will perform as Ellen in Two Rooms by Lee Blessing as part of Centre Stage’s Fringe Series. Seymour is an assistant professor of theatre.

Greg Shelnutt was appointed in January to serve on the professional practices committee of the College Art Association board. He will serve a three-year term. Shelnutt is professor of art and chair of the Department of Art.

Aga Skrodzka has a new book chapter: “Cinematic Fairy Tales of Female Mobility in Post-Wall Europe: Hanna v. Mona” in East, West and Centre: Reframing Post-1989 European Cinema, eds. Michael Gott and Todd Herzog. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015. In March, Skrodzka  attended the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference in Montreal where she delivered a paper titled “Mediating the Warsaw Uprising: Polish National Memory in Recent Popular Media.” She also attended a workshop focused on the “World Cinema” turn in film studies, where she was pleased to announce Clemson University’s launch of its new B.A. program in World Cinema, the first such program in the nation. Skrodzka is associate professor of film and media studies in Department of English and director of Clemson University’s new B.A. in world cinema.

Graciela Tissera, associate professor of Spanish and director of Clemson’s language and international health program, recently presented two papers:

• “We Greeks are the Chosen: The Golden Era of Courage and Glory in Alexander the Great by Robert Rossen (1956).” The 2014 Film & History Conference. Golden Ages: Styles & Personalities, Genres & Histories. Madison, Wisconsin, October 29-November 2, 2014.
• “Filmic Portrayals of the Subconscious Mind and the Game of Death.” Southeast Coastal Conference on Languages and Literatures. Georgia Southern University. Savannah, Georgia, March 26-27, 2015.

Melinda Weathers has a new paper out: Weathers, M. R., & Hopson, M. (2015). “I define what hurts me”: A co-cultural theoretical analysis of communication factors related to digital dating abuse. Howard Journal of Communications, 26, 95-113. Weathers is assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Communication Studies.

Valerie Zimany, assistant professor of art, shares the following news:

• Her ceramic sculpture, “The Tinker,” was exhibited at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa in Utatsu no Katachi: 25 Years of the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop.
• She was also featured in All About Porcelain, a juried national exhibition at the Clay Studio of Missoula, MT.
• Upcoming exhibitions this spring include the National Museum of Slovenia’s  International Ceramic Triennial UNICUM – 2015, a juried international competition, as well as DRAWN IN, invitational group exhibition at Calvin-Morris Gallery, Chelsea, NY, organized by Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.
• Valerie recently traveled to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference, where she was a presenter on the NCECA Connections Panel “On the Tenure Track.”
• Valerie’s collaborative installation “Evergreen: Vespiary” at UNC-Charlotte in fall was documented in video by UNCC Media and can be viewed here.
• Valerie  was named as one of the 2016-2018 Creativity Professors by Dean Goodstein at the CAAH Honors and Awards Ceremony on April 10, 2015.